Hostal Mare Nostrum Blog

Human statues from Las Ramblas: A living legend

Hostal Mare Nostrum would like to speak today about one of the most important things you can find in las Ramblas: The human statues.
They are street artists featured as imaginative as they can, from celebrities and mythological beings to imaginary characters exposing on the sides of the avenue and entertaining for some money. Costumes used for their representations of the inert are so complex and elaborate that has become art and, in some cases, it reaches the sublime.
In 2007 Christian Jankowsky “returned to inmortality” three of the most representative features of the Ramblas: El Che, the Dali Woman and the Roman Centurion that stood for a few weeks next to their copies. The curious who approached hesitantly the ambiguous figures eventually hit them to certify it's absolute and complete petrification.
For kids it's always shocking to approache the statues till realize that inside a soldier of Second World War made of bronze there's a heartbeat, revealed by a wink. In Las Ramblas statues are constantly renewed, so you can always find a new feature. Otherwise there are lots of painters and cartoonists exhibiting their work that can make an instant hiper-realistic portrait, or even a cartoon!
You can't miss it!